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Over time, we all mature as car enthusiasts. Priorities change, and the things that were important when you were modifying cars at 16 years old lose value as you age and learn. If at 16, having the coolest look was more important than anything else, then perhaps your early 20s are a never ending quest for the most possible power. Most enthusiasts that have fought their way through hundreds of track events, destroyed engines, and years of sweat and effort will eventually quest for something much simpler. Most enthusiasts with a solid decade of experience will want nothing more than a car that works well, reliably. Reliability is everything. An increase in power is worth nothing, if the car fails to perform in it’s designed settings.

It is for this reason that IND has never been in a hurry to dyno our ESS Supercharged project cars. We don’t care how much power Green Hell, Blue Max, or the Silver Standard make. What’s truly important is that the cars start every time, and drive thousands of miles day in and day out, on and off the track.

Of course, when you take photos like this, people are bound to ask questions. Curiosity gets the best of people, and “it runs great!” just doesn’t cut it after a while. We knew we had to see what the car could do.

The internet is a harsh place, and with many shops diving into a fray of accusations, we knew we could not simply go to any dyno. We had to work with the best. AMS Performance has been creating record breaking cars for over a decade. Their 1000hp creations have victories in Time Attack, Texas mile, outright engine horsepower records, and more. AMS has been winning tuner shootouts, track events, hill climbs, and drag races for more years than most shops have been in business. Best of all, AMS’ bread and butter are Japanese cars like the Mitsubishi Evolution and Nissan GTR. Because AMS is not an active player in the E9x M3 market, they have no vested interest in skewing numbers in one direction or another. We knew working with AMS would be the best way to ensure honesty.After struggling and asking personal favors to get a time slot on their dyno (the AMS dyno is booked 3 months in advance with work), we finally got an “emergency” shot last week. We were told to come at 10am for our shot. Coming a bit late would mean getting told to turn around and come back in three months, when the schedule is more free.

We hit a minor bump in the road when we arrived at AMS, and realized they had replaced their DynoJet dyno with a new Mustang all wheel drive dyno. Because most of their clients own AWD cars, AMS preferred the Mustang’s AWD capabilities over the old DynoJet. This threw us off a bit, as most of the M3 community seems to prefer DynoJet numbers, but we decided to press on regardless. AMS tells us that the Mustang reads exactly 8% lower than their old DynoJet, every single time, every single car.

After listening to the deafening 8,000 RPM scream of Green Hell’s Eisenmann Inconel exhaust with Akrapovic GT4 x pipe, we walked over to the computer to see the numbers- not bad!503 wheel horsepower, equivalent to 543 wheel horsepower on their old DynoJet dyno, according to AMS’ calculations.

So, they admit to not making as much power but now they try to say the reliability is what makes their supercharger kits special?
People use forced induction to make power, not to increase reliability. Even with an SC it should be expected that reliability will stay at a constant unless you are pushing massive boost.
Look at niterider, he has plenty of miles on his car (which is very reliable) and makes endless power.

I am starting to get fed up with ESS claiming that they are better than the competition, especially when a reliable company such as IND bows down and takes it from them in the ass.